George Alagiah joined the BBC's Six O'Clock News in January 2003, which he co-presents with Natasha Kaplinsky.

In March 2002, he launched BBC Four's international news programme.

Before going behind the studio desk, George was one of the BBC's leading foreign correspondents, reporting on events ranging from the genocide in Rwanda, the plight of the marsh Arabs in southern Iraq and civil wars in Afghanistan, Liberia and Sierra Leone.

George joined the BBC in 1989 after seven years in print journalism with South Magazine.

He is a specialist on Africa and the developing world and has interviewed among others Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe.

His documentaries and features include reports on why affirmative action in America is a 'Lost Cause' for the Assignment programme, Saddam Hussein's genocidal campaign against the Kurds of northern Iraq for the BBC's Newsnight programme and reported on the last reunion of the veterans of Dunkirk.

George has won numerous awards including Best International Report at the Royal Television Society in 1993 and Amnesty International's Best TV Journalist award in 1994.

In 2000 he was part of the BBC team which collected a Bafta award for its coverage of the Kosovo conflict.